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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!akgua!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!hplabs!hao!seismo!cmcl2!philabs!sbcs!bnl!jpm
From: jpm@bnl.UUCP (John McNamee)
Newsgroups: net.followup,net.micro,net.legal
Subject: Re: Computer Bulletin Board Confiscated
Message-ID: <460@bnl.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 24-May-84 16:11:02 EDT
Article-I.D.: bnl.460
Posted: Thu May 24 16:11:02 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 1-Jun-84 05:14:27 EDT
References: <806@sdcsvax.UUCP>
Lines: 35
Xref: 566 1568 392

{Eat it!}

As a user of the BBS that got taken down and a Sysop myself
let me offer a few comments....

Tom's board has 10 sections on it. One of the sections
is called "Underground" and at times there have been MCI,
Sprint, etc. codes posted there. I am not sure if Tom
deleted these or not. This section was also used for
software trading and recently hosted a big debate over
whether it is Ok to break into computer systems (it ended
in a draw). The point of all this is that there was a place
on Tom's BBS called "Underground" where illegal activities
were discussed and MCI/Sprint/etc. numbers were exchanged.

The underground was by no means the main feature of the
BBS and other sections had a larger message volume.

I run one BBS and co-sysop another. Messages related to
phreaking or piracy are deleted as soon as I see them. The
catch is that I might not see a message for over 24 hours
during which time the police might come on and see the
message.

The police need the ability to take down a BBS devoted to
phreaking. They should not take down a system like mine
because one or two messages happen to be left and I don't
zap them immediately. Tom's system lies in the middle. He
has an "underground" section, but that isn't the main
purpose of his BBS. I think the proper thing to do would
have been to ask him to remove the section.

--
John McNamee	..!decvax!philabs!sbcs!bnl!jpm
		jpm@Bnl.Arpa